Letters to the Editor for July 5, 2018

How would you feel if one day you came home and found a stranger living in your home? They did not have your permission to be there and just broke in. When you try to remove them you are told, no, you can’t do that. They are entitled to a court hearing and can stay in your home until they have the hearing. You must now feed them, take them to a doctor if they are sick, provide them with necessities i.e. clothing, hygiene products and you must pay for it. By the way you must also pay for their attorney and interpreter. You must provide all this to this unwanted stranger before you take care of your family’s needs, and you have no choice in the matter. Illegal immigration costs us, the taxpaying citizens billions of dollars a year supporting illegal immigrants. Our politicians try to intimidate us for speaking out and labeling us, racists, bigots, un-American and more. Ask yourself shouldn’t we take care of our citizens first? Our elderly, sick and poor. Shouldn’t we fix our school systems and our infrastructure first before taking in more illegal people who are only going to add to our overburdened infrastructure? Social Security is running out. However, if you are an illegal pregnant woman, who walks over our border, never having had pre-natal care and give birth to a disabled child, that child, is now a U.S. citizen. The child is entitled to Medicaid and Social Security disability for life. The parents have never contributed a penny to the system. Stopping illegal immigration is necessary to each and every citizen of the United States. We, as a nation, cannot afford to support individuals who illegally come into our home, who have no respect for our nation, our people and the rule of law. Those of you who support illegal immigration also support increasing your property taxes, your state income taxes and your federal income taxes all to pay for some stranger that broke into your home.

Marcia Egan – Franklin, N.C.

U.S. consumer demand drives drug prices

In response to the letter titled “America foots the drug bill for the world”: The writer makes some vague unsubstantiated claims that other countries are causing financial woes to American pharmaceutical companies by forcing these companies to under charge for medications. Let’s look at the facts: From the years 2003-2016 for the top 12 companies in revenue over 13 years – The combined total revenue was about $5.35 trillion. – The combined total profits for these companies was about $1.05 trillion. – All 12 pharmaceutical companies spent a total of $887 billion on research. – The total amount they spent on marketing was nearly twice what they spent on research: $1.59 trillion. This approximately 20 percent profit margin is the largest among all the large manufacturing industries in the U.S. So why do pharmaceutical companies charge Americans so much more for non-generic drugs? Because they can. The vast majority of the pharmaceutical marketing dollars are spent in the U.S. Virtually no money is spent on marketing in the EU. The advertising dollars spent in the U.S. are targeted directly at consumers. This consumer advertising is intended to create demand for drugs that doctors may not necessarily prescribe, but are pressured to do so by “informed” consumers. This consumer demand created by industry marketing is coupled with the maxim, “charge as much as the market can bear, regardless of the cost of delivering product to market.” The U.S. is the only first and second world country (and among all but a handful of third world countries) where healthcare costs are determined by profit motive. The results of this reliance on the free market to determine healthcare costs, including pharmaceutical products, are these: First, U.S. healthcare costs are about 18 percent of the U.S. GDP [Gross Domestic Product], as compared the approximate 10 percent of the GDP of all other nations, which creates a significant drag on our overall economy and puts the U.S. economy at a significant disadvantage to the economies of the rest of the world’s countries. Second, the U.S. typically scores in the bottom third percentile of all countries in the ability to deliver positive healthcare that results in longer lifespans and a higher quality of life for the vast majority of the populous.

John Barry – Franklin, N.C.

Thanks for putting together The Taste of Scotland

The Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center, Inc. would like to thank Nathan James IV and his committee for putting together the 21st annual Taste of Scotland. This event brings more visitors of Scottish/Celtic heritage into town which increases sales and museum admissions. We would also like to thank Dave Linn for his dedication and commitment in orchestrating the 8th annual Braveheart 5K and Rob Roy Fun Run. This event is an annual fund raiser for the museum founded by Dave who donates all funds after expenses are paid.

Jim Akins – Franklin, N.C.

Decline of education not a cultural accident

This letter is motivated by one published a few weeks ago in The Macon County News and Shopping Guide. I intend not to argue with the writer, but to elaborate on some things he said. Those of his letters that I have read, have all contained something useful to know and something food for thought. So I got to thinking, and here is what I thought. Livy’s “History of Early Rome,” used to be a standard textbook in schools. It shows men implementing constitutional changes in their government to prevent abuses by government, and it shows men opposing and overcoming governmental abuses which they failed to prevent. Tacitus’s “Annals of Imperial Rome,” used to be a standard textbook in schools. It shows subject-people striving for their freedom (and failing). It shows the degradation and corruption which members of imperial governments are free to exercise. The Bible, used to be a standard textbook in schools. It shows valid and timeless aspects of the human condition. It shows that evil is always present and that people must discipline themselves against it. Logic used to be a standard course in schools. Study of logic helps students to better comprehend what they read, to form sound arguments of their own, and to recognize the falacious arguments and propaganda presented to them by interested or ignorant parties. Rhetoric used to be a standard course in schools. Rhetoric is about the composition of persuasive arguments so as to be able both to persuade others and to recognize when others are attempting to be persuasive. Ethics used to be a standard course in schools. The study of ethics enabled students to recognize when others were attempting to persuade them to do unjust things. It equiped students so that they would not themselves be unknowingly trying to persuade others to do unjust things. Edgar Allan Poe, a leading Old South man of letters, began and ended his article on a classical education by stating that one cannot become an author of great literature in the English language without first making a thorough study of the Greek language and ancient Greek literature. Those subjects, once standard in the school curriculum, no longer are. Does the reader see that common to all of these courses was how to remain free? Whatever mechanisms served in Europe to limit the lower classes’ access to education, did not operate in America. Education became almost universal in America. Schools used to be private enterprises. Parents used to compare schools and buy for their children the one they thought best from among those they could afford. Then the ruling class said everyone should have an education without having to pay for it. The government would pay for it with taxes and somebody else would pay the taxes. The ruling class took over the schools by making them government schools. The above named parts of a good education were removed from the schools. The teachers had been made complicit in this removal by making all of them members of the government. Private enterprise education was mostly destroyed. No more willing buyer/willing seller. Now, “your kid must go to this school and this is what your kid must study.” That time in America when parents and teachers worked hand in hand to educate our children, was the time when the parents, not a bureaucrat, paid the teachers. That time when the United States held a world position in education, was when education was a private, not a socialist, enterprise. The decline of education in the United States is not an accident of culture. It is a planned decline. It is imposed by those who, through their dominant part in government, exercise a large amount of control over “we, the people” and desire to exercise more. In government school curriculums, knowledge of freedom and how to preserve it is de-emphasized. In government school curriculums, language skills are de-emphasized. The poorer a people’s language skills, the poorer that people’s ability to articuate desires, needs, and benefits of freedom. They have to resort to rioting to express themselves. The ruling class can use force to put down riots without it appearing to be tyrannical. If people who oppose governmental power can be manipulated into rioting because the knowledge and skills for working through government to effect change, have been withheld from them, that is good for those in power. Riots legitimize the use of force to maintain power. Freedom of the press is not too much of a threat if everyone is too ignorant to use that freedom effectively, except the well-trained and indoctrinated but ill-educated talking heads, beholden for their salaries to the large corporations whose managers are the ruling class.

George Crockett – Franklin, N.C.

Commissioner helps solve setback question

I wrote this to publicly thank Commissioner Ronnie Beale, for without his intervention I would have been alone against the Department of Transportation. It all started last year, when I built a privacy fence to amend a neighbor’s concern. A week after the fence was erected, a gentleman from the DOT, stopped by and said that I was in violation of the roads 22 1/2-foot easement and had 30 days to remove or move the fence back. I moved the fence back and re-contacted the DOT to say that I was now in compliance. I never heard back from the DOT, until approximately one month ago, with a new letter stating that I was now in violation of the state’s 30-foot easement for my road. Something was wrong because DOT had always told me the setback was 22 1/2 feet. I first contacted the main state office of the DOT and was told they would look into it and get back with me. They never did. I went down to the court house, to get a plat map that would show my road’s setback but was unable to attain one. Having been told that unless I complied, serious fines would be imposed on a daily basis, I was at wit’s end to find a solution. Then, on the afternoon of Friday the 22nd, I turned to Commissioner Beale. I showed him last year’s DOT letter, stating the easement was 22 1/2 feet and this year’s letter stating 30 feet. He said he would look into the problem and have a solution before I started being fined. That next Monday, I got a call from Beale. After taking his time to locate a copy of my street plat, he contacted the DOT office in Andrews, spoke with the man who wrote my letter, explained the discrepancy and the proof he possessed indicating that the set back was indeed 22 1/2 feet. He was told to contact me and tell me to forget about my letter, as it seemed that the setback was indeed 22 1/2 feet. I can only say that this county is blessed, having commissioners like Mr. Beale.

Jeff Pritz – Franklin, N.C.

What’s happening to our America?

Would you as a parent send your child thousands of miles out in this world? Hell, no, not me. Would you allow you wife and children to do the same thing? Hell, no. Come on, I wonder what kind of husbands are these men? We don’t need them in our country. You know, it’s a lousy game being played and we here in this country are being used by them. When I see protesters, don’t they know they’re being used, this separating children has been going on for several decades. They’re being kept in places better than in their home life, they’re eating better, they have medical care so, why not come. Wake up Americans you’re paying for all this care. If we don’t send them all back, build a wall. Stop being the world’s suckers and care for Americans at home here in our country. Save the America I love now before it’s too late!